


Seraph

by HostisHumaniGeneris



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Pain, Science Fiction, Space Opera, Time Skips, Violence, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 10:25:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16303400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HostisHumaniGeneris/pseuds/HostisHumaniGeneris
Summary: She was hired by some corporate bigwig to serve as a bodyguard for his estranged daughter.  At first, it seemed like easy money--who would ever want to go after a xenobiologist who barely had anything to do with her old man?  As time went on, she found she liked the job, and the scientist she was hired to protect, for more than the paycheck.  Then, she finally did meet the kind of people who would attempt to harm her charge.





	Seraph

**Author's Note:**

  * For [geckoholic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/geckoholic/gifts).



Sera looked down at the scorch mark on her hip, through her suit, where one of the kidnappers had grazed her.  Was just a graze, so instead of being fatal, it was merely _blindingly painful_. Between that shot and the fall she’d taken down the deck stairs; they must’ve assumed she was dead, and they could carry on with the kidnapping.  Or they weren’t kidnappers at all, but merely hitmen.

That thought forced Sera to her feet, clamping a hand over the wound and stifling a scream.  She mentally retraced the ship’s layout in her head and began limping to where she’d last seen Zoe. Every step she took was agony.  She collapsed to her knees when she reached the galley, not finding Zoe among the bodies.  So they were kidnappers then after all.

That meant she still had a job to do.

First thing first, she stepped over one of the students’ bodies, spying a medical kit next to him.  She winced at the exertion of prying it open, but found what she was looking for.  The wound had cauterized shut on impact, but the walk up opened it; dabbed a mixture of hemostatic and disinfectant gel on the burn and covered it.  Then she fished out a syringe, tore the cap off with her teeth, and jabbed herself with it.  A flare up of pain, then it was gone.

She got to her feet, ignoring the hollow feeling in her head, and noticed something in the far doorway.  A bracelet.  Down the corridor, there was a shoe, kicked off in a struggle.  There was a trail to follow.  And that’s what she did.  She followed the drag marks, the little personal affects; that Zoe had dropped.  Her head was thankfully clear despite the painkillers coursing through her, but she was aware she probably was exacerbating the wounds.  She was in no shape to be chasing after them, but she had to. 

Because it was her job, she told herself.

That was only a half-truth.  It was indeed her job to protect Zoe Hoshi, prodigal daughter of Gilles Dupre.  In his age, the cutthroat mining baron had been seeking to reconnect with his eldest daughter.  Through complicated and circuitous corporate bullshit, he couldn’t just provide a bodyguard from his own security staff, and sought freelancers.  Her father had paid Sera lucratively to shadow his daughter and keep her safe.

Yeah, she was following Zoe’s trail because it was her job.  There were just other reasons for doing so.

* * *

_“You’re my bodyguard?” Zoe asked, frowning, her tone adding in the unsaid is this really necessary?  “Mister Dupre did message me that he was sending someone.  I’m half-surprised he didn’t send an entire contingent of his Mining Guards.”_

_Sera nodded.  A few other biologists were rushing around the site, buzzing excitedly.  They’d seen the ship landing and had been hoping it was a resupply or courier.  “Mister Dupree?”_

_“My father and I were never close.  My father and everyone were never close.” Zoe added.  Figures there was a reason she was using her mother’s maiden name.  “When I decided to get into xenobiology, rather than enter into the world of business, he’d had enough of me and cut me off.”_

_“Mm-hn” Sera nodded.  Family politics mattered little to her.  But dying captains of industry didn’t shell out double market rates for private security for anyone, least of all an estranged family member, unless there was a good reason._

_“Why did he even hire you anyways?”  She asked.  “He’s been getting in touch with me more frequently, and may have actually referred to me as ‘my daughter’ once or twice in his communiques.  But…”_

_“I don’t ask my clients why they hire me.  Only what they hire me to do, Doctor Hoshi.” The interruption was a little rude, but Hoshi wasn’t paying her bills.  That was a practiced line she’d thrown out for countless third parties.  “However, as you said… if it’s unusual for my employer to be protective, then the fact he hired me means he has reason to suspect there might be a reason to do so.”_

_Nobody was going to kick Sera out of the research site; none of the researchers could.  And she did her best to stay out of their way, be unobtrusive while she did recon or watched over her charge.  Building rapport wasn’t her best skill, but she could put forth enough interest in their research to get them talking._

_They were studying the native fauna, and its reaction to the atmosphere’s change. The mass introduction of oxygen into the atmosphere, followed by oxygen-breathing fauna, had disrupted a million years’ balance that they’d never fully piece back together._

_Still, studying a mass extinction of foot-long space worms was of interest to these people._

_She’d done a lot of reading on her way over, and namedropping articles they had published when it appeared appropriate did a lot to break the ice.  Even Zoe Hoshi, her reluctant charge, warmed to her as time went on.  Biology was a little fascinating to Sera.  The life of a mercenary was quite fascinating to the scientists.  She’d learned a little of their trade, and those that were interested—Zoe included, thankfully—learned a little of hers.  Basic weapons handling, but not firing as the biologists didn’t want to disturb the worms, a little hand-to-hand focusing on basic trips and throws, and a few war stories._

_It had started as a job, but honestly, babysitting one biologist out of a pack of them ended up being less boring than she’d thought, and with easier camaraderie.  She was the expert in her own little world, and they were all the experts of theirs, no shoving matches to establish who was in charge._

_Serving as Zoe Hoshi’s bodyguard for the long haul was looking to be more than just easy money—although there was plenty of that.  It was actually looking fun._

* * *

I.D. Card.  Hoshi, Zoe.  Sera tucked it in her pocket, then stood up, fighting for a split second against vertigo.  Running full-tilt on painkillers was not sustainable, she was going to crash sooner or later.  But she didn’t plan on being on her feet for too long.  She looked around, seeing Zoe’s supervisor, Dr. Griggs, facedown.

_Give us Miss Dupre and we won’t hurt you, they had said when they had burst into the galley.  When one of the other faculty had approached, hands up, trying to negotiate and correct that she went by Doctor Hoshi, they shot him through the head and clarified.  Give us Miss Dupre, or we’ll hurt you._

Sera had gone for the second option.  It was risky as fuck, but she was going to keep Zoe safe even if it killed her; and there was no reason to actually buy that they were going to let the others go if Zoe was handed over.  They were headed to the bridge, which meant they probably were going to do something like shut off the life support or drive it into the sun while they hauled Zoe onto their own ship.

After that, well it didn’t matter what the kidnapping was about.  Was it just to get to her old man, revenge for a business slight?  One of her siblings, upset she might get written back into the will?  Just pirates who thought there’d be a substantial ransom in it?

That would never happen though.  Corporate barons, even if they were reconnecting, were not going to negotiate with someone who kidnapped their daughter.  And even if they did, even if the ransom was paid, there’d be no real reason to actually let Zoe live.

Sera picked up the pace.

* * *

“ _So… how we going to pass the time?” Zoe asked, the radio in her environment suit’s helmet the only reason Sera could hear her over the windstorm outside._

_They were in one of the caves on this miserable little rock, the only place pockets of life really existed.  Some type of foodchain based off of chemosynthetic flora.  Sera trailed off a bit; it was weird space microbe things as far as she considered it.  Outside the cave a sandstorm had kicked up, whipping shards of razor-sharp silicates around incredibly fast.  They couldn’t be picked up until the storm subsided, so they went as deep inside the caves as they could.  Even still, they heard the wind.  Still beat being shredded by the dust._

_“Try to get some sleep?” Sera asked, knowing that wasn’t an option.  She herself could sleep through a bombardment and wake at a moment’s notice to charge straight in the fray.  Civilians, not so much.  Still there wasn’t much to do._

_“Hm… I’m not tired.  And… thank you.” Zoe said, adding.  “For dragging me in the cave.”_

_“Hey, you’re the one who knew which fork didn’t lead to a dead end.  Need to get in deep.” Sera said._

_The silence was awkward.  Zoe shifted a bit, looking at her companion, slumped against he opposite wall of the cave.  “Can we just talk?”_

_“Sure.  Biology or war stories?” Sera asked.  She was starting to run out of the stories, at least the interesting kinds involving fighting across the breadth of charted space.  And she was sure her tale of that time her employers logistics chain was so fucked up they literally had to wait at a staging area for two solid days before transports arrived to take them to the front wasn’t exactly going to thrill._

_“Um… how about neither?” Zoe asked.  “I mean, I like your stories, and I love my field, but I dunno.  Like, where are you from?”_

_“Goddard Station” She said, not bothering to explain which of the seemingly endless number of space stations with that name she referred to.  Her life until she did a hitch in the military was as generic as those stations._

_“Really? I grew up on Goddard too… well, the one orbiting Neptune.  There’s like a billion of them.”  She replied.  Sera perked up, she had always assumed the woman probably was raised somewhere prestigious.  Although growing up in an impoverished  space habitat could maybe make sense._

_As they talked Sera got more of a read on her charge.  And something else.  She had an unremarkable life, but Zoe was paying as much attention as she had been during that story about the boarding action against a crew of pirates in the Kupier belt.  Zoe wasn’t just interested in the interesting stories, she was interested in Sera._

_And the more she talked it over, the more interesting things Sera found out about Zoe._

* * *

Her head was starting to swim.  Maybe that was the amount of O2 decreasing, maybe she was just starting to go, painkillers and hemostats failing to prop her up enough.  One or the other, she could afford neither right now.  Her pace slowed despite her will to keep moving. 

Something appeared in the corridor, and she raised her sidearm to shoot it.  In the split second it did, she saw the hands raise and the eyes go wide.  Unarmed, and the person’s hazy features solidified into those of one of Zoe’s students.  She must have survived the initial bloodbath.  She was rambling, there was blood everywhere, so many people needed help.

When Sera asked where the bridge was, she kept rambling.

When Sera leveled her gun and said they would cut the life support, she shut up. 

Sera asked where the bridge was again, and she pointed in the direction she’d been traveling.  It was good to know that despite the mental fog, her sense of direction hadn’t failed.  Yet. 

“What are we going to do?” The student cut in, scared and confused.  She repeated it several times when Sera tried to think.

“I’m headed for the bridge.” Sera growled, straightening herself.  “You keep your mouth shut, go to your quarter, and lock the door.”

To her credit, the girl complied without further comment.

Sera pushed on, pain jolting her to a cry when she fell and landed against the floor.  The flare of pain snapped her awake.  She sharply inhaled and pushed herself back to her feet, bracing herself as she did so. She had to get to her feet, had to get to the bridge, and had to find Zoe.

The walk was short but felt like a marathon, and when she finally reached the bridge she had to lean against the wall, taking a deep breath as she reached for the door release.  On the other side of the door were the kidnappers.  And Zoe.

And Sera opened the door.

* * *

_“Life is common enough in space, if you know where to look.” Zoe said, pointing at the holographic display while the students she was teaching paid varying degrees of attention.  For their first day of field research, Zoe was keeping things very simple for them, which meant some were zoning out.  “Many planets are dead worlds, but may have once had the ingredients for single celled life.”_

_The images shifted, showing planets Sera had been on, a few she’d heard before, and a few she’d never seen.  “Not counting planets that were terraformed by humanity, and therefore have life that descended from Terra on it, there are over one-thousand known planets with multicellular life.”_

_She indicated to the screen.  The students were unwowed by images of dozens of types of wildlife, from the eels of Kepler 22-b, the scrubby grasses of one of the Tau Cetis, and the spindly bugs of Ross 128 b.  Sera shuddered at that, just like she had when Zoe had ran through the presentation the night before the students arrived.  She’d been involved in a mining rights dispute on that rock, and had some bad memories of what happened to her squad when they failed to take proper precautions._

_“Although in form and environmental niche, these creatures sometimes resemble Terran life, they all evolved entirely separately, over millions of years; there’s every reason to suspect that each has a ‘family tree’ just as complicated as any creature on Earth, yet full-scale paleontological research is lacking on many worlds.”_

_New image.  It was Earth, the ruins in Egypt.  “It was over one hundred thousand years from the earliest  fossil records of anatomically modern humans to the construction of the Pyramids.  Six thousand years later, Man had the stars.”_

_“And as we all know, all of that time is a blink…” Zoe said, emphasizing her point by snapping her fingers.  The image shifted to a complex line diagram, human to ape to smaller ape to ratlike thing, branching into a larger chart with creatures Sera never knew existed, much less on the world her ancestors grew up on. “…in terms of the history of life on Earth, and even that is a fraction of the history of Earth itself.”_

_Right now the students were probably wondering why this mattered._

_“So… even with millions of years of evolution, a civilization can appear in what appears to be the blink of an eye.” The image shifted again, to images of Zoe and the rest of the researchers in the field, standing among stonework ruins.  Stonework ruins too small to have been inhabited by people.  They had spent the previous week searching the ruins for any signs of the builders, finding no luck.  “…and unfortunately, it can also disappear.”_

_That got the students talking.  Zoe and the others had decided to hold off publishing their findings; an actual alien civilization, until they had fully explored the site.  Several of the students’ faces said it all, their careers had been made before they had technically even begun._

_While to the students, Zoe was cool and collected, Sera knew she’d been conflicted about the site.  It was amazingly exciting, but also disappointing.  Nobody had been an archaeologist, they hadn’t dated the ruins, and Zoe had agonized over how much of a near miss this had been.  Could the builders still be around?  Satellite surveys detected no other settlements like this.  How long ago had they died out?  Ruins of an alien civilization were fascinating, but Zoe couldn’t help but feel regret over missing an actual discovery of aliens on an Earth-like planet._

_"Wouldn't it be interesting to meet them?" She had asked in private._

_"Yeah, maybe." Sera had replied. The site was interesting, but more interesting to Sera was Zoe's reaction to it.  "Still, if they existed, then I'd have to run a background check on each and every one of them before I could let you come near them."_

* * *

The lead kidnapper had his helmet off, spinning around her while silhouetted by the hologram he’d been talking to.  Another was standing behind Zoe, who was sitting in the captain’s seat.  The third was laying on the floor, smoking hole in his throat at point blank range.  Were they all that was left?  She’d been so close earlier, could’ve prevented all of this.  Blood pounded in her ears.  She could barely make out the sounds of shouting. 

She stood, mostly blocked by the doorframe, sidearm leveled.  It was mostly plastics, light, but it felt like a lead weight in her hands.  She shook her head to clear the cobwebs.  Most of the time, she’d take her time, plan things out, but this wasn’t sustainable.  She needed things done _now_.

The leader raised his rifle too late.  The shot hit him in his face and he fell like a drone that suddenly had all power cut to its limbs.  She dove back into cover, panting heavily.  The third was still fully-armored; at arms length she could hit a joint or something unprotected, but across the bridge, while he hid behind Zoe?

Sera groaned.  There wasn’t a lot of time left.

“Throw down your weapon or I’ll kill her!” Came the voice from the bridge.  She’d no doubts that the man was capable of it, and she couldn’t _think_ of a better plan.  The gun was really heavy, anyways.  The dull thud when it hit the deck rang in Sera’s ears.  “Now step out from cover!”

Sera did.

The last kidnapper leveled his gun in what seemed like an eternity.  Then Zoe grabbed his arm, rushed in under it.  The shot went wide as she shoved the arm away and hooked a leg behind his knee; attempting to take him to the floor with a sweep; she didn’t quite manage it, but he was off balance.

Sera had been running ever since Zoe intervened, and by the time the kidnapper managed to shove the biologist aside, she slammed into him as fast as she could.  She _felt_ the impact in her abdomen, where she’d been shot earlier, despite the painkillers. 

Both were on the floor scrambling for the gun.  The room was spinning, and Sera was aware she was screaming, that she’d reopened her wound.  That was insanely painful, but she still crawled forward nonetheless.  It was within a finger’s length, then something grabbed her legs and dragged her backward.

She grabbed an arm and wrenched it, and he yelled, while she used the limb as a handhold to drag herself forward again.  The gun was so close, but so, so far away.

* * *

_Sera stood looking in a mirror.  She spent so much time in the outer territories; running through battlefields on the limited proxy wars corporations fought over mining resources, hunting pirates in zero gravity, hunkering in an environment suit chasing after a lead who thought hiding on a planet with an atmosphere of Chlorine meant no one would chase after his bounty.  Even when she visited the core worlds, she was used to chasing after people in slums._

_Standing in a formal suit, bracing herself to chaperone her charge through some high-powered corporate event was unexpected._

_When she saw Zoe’s reflection in the mirror, she spun around, looking at her charge up and down.  She was in a floor length, sleeveless gown, with gloves that were long enough to function like sleeves, because that made sense to rich people with more money than sense.  Not that Sera necessarily had a problem with that._

_“Here, let me help you with that.” Zoe said, leaning close and straightening her tie, smiling a little as she had to untie then retie it.  “Y’know you wouldn’t have to wear a tie if you just agreed to wear a dress.”_

_“Can’t hide my gun underneath that…” Sera said, gesturing from Zoe’s feet upwards.  The fashionably-cut suit from a tailor Zoe had recommended was only a little better; there was an obvious bulge where her sidearm was holstered.  Only reason she’d been allowed to bring it in the first place was it was some annual event held by Dupre Extraction Industries, so when Security had stopped her, she just had to call her boss, who was the boss of their boss’s boss’s boss._

_“Why’d you even bring that anyways?”  Zoe said, patting her on the shoulder and leading her to the window.  The entire exterior wall of this room of the suite was transparent, facing the pale yellow surface of Saturn, and the countless rings of dust and rock circling it.  “Mister… My father’s guards are providing security for the event.”_

_“Yeah, I saw them.” They were kitted out for war; given the protestors outside, that was quite possible, actually.  “But I’m your bodyguard, so I wouldn’t be doing my job unless I was ready for a fight._

_She wasn’t quite aware Zoe had grabbed her hand until she noticed the soft touch of her thumb against bruised and calloused skin.  “Honestly, right now, you’re not my bodyguard, you’re my guest for this event.”_

_They just stood and watched Saturn for a while until the time it was fashionably late to go down to join the party._

* * *

Sera woke up, staring at a blinding light.  She groaned and propped herself up.  That was a good sign, being dead would not have hurt this much.  She laid back down, squinting until her eyes adjusted and the sounds of an EKG beeping became more distinct.  She was in the medical bay of the _Curiousity_.  That was a good sign, too.

Zoe was in a chair, pulled to the side of her cot, sleeping.  She jolted awake when Sera planted a hand on her head and tousled her hair.  “So… this might be an obvious question, but we won, right?”

Zoe nodded.  “I grabbed the gun while you were fighting over it.  The guy gave up right after that.”

“And?” 

“Locked him in a supply closet.” Zoe said.  “We’re a few days out from Brahe Station, and then we’ll hand him to the authorities.”

“Know why they were after you?” Sera asked.  She had a few working theories.  Maybe it was one of Zoe’s siblings, angry that if she was patching up with the old man, she might be dis-disinherited and their share of the nigh-on infinite wealth would be diminished.  Maybe it was some professional rivalry sort of thing; that hush-hush research into those ruins.  Who knows.

Zoe didn’t.  “He said he was just following orders, and the pirate ship, we haven’t exactly wanted to screw around with.”

There was silence for a while.  Zoe handled Sera a glass of water, which she downed rapidly.  Propping herself up, she saw the other beds in sick bay were occupied.  “How many casualties?”

“Um… everyone here, and ten more dead, in cold storage.” Zoe said, frowning.  “Why would anyone do this to us?”

“I’m thining about it…ugh.” Sera said, sitting all the way upright and wheeling around, putting bare feet on the cold deck.  “Lemme talk it over with our last guest.”

Zoe planted her hands on Sera’s shoulders.  “No, you’re not leaving until we dock and you can get real medical attention.”

Sera was about to brush it off when she looked at Zoe and saw the girl’s concern.  It had been a long, long time since anyone else had worried about her as something other than an asset on the field, or a liability on the balance sheet.  She sighed and relaxed.  “Thanks for your help, by the way.”

“Yeah, I did just what you taught me.” The hands left her shoulders, one drifting down her right arm, to her hand, and gave it a squeeze.

“If you did, he would’ve been flat on his face.”  Sera corrected.  Grinning, she said “When I get patched up, you and I are going to have to practice that.  One-on-one.”

“I’d like that, Sera.”

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to strike a balance between the Mercenary/Ward relationship and desperate violent space action and constantly was wondering if I should just focus on one or the other. I hope the resulting fic is alright.


End file.
